Poseidon From a Different Point of View
by bbewmot
Summary: This is just a short story about a group of friends who were killed in the Poseidon disaster. All reviews are appreciated.


My name is Aaron Webb. I am 18 years old and I live in Redditch, near Birmingham in the UK. This is the story of how I died.

It all started last November when me, my friend, Jared, his girlfriend, Anna, and her friend Laura booked a holiday on a Trans- Atlantic crossing on board one of the largest cruise ships ever built; Poseidon.

On Boxing Day, we left for Southampton, from Birmingham New Street station, to where our ship would be departing from. Five days away was New Year's Eve, what we did not realise was that it was going to be the last New Year's Eve we would ever see, and this was going to be the last holiday any of us would ever have.

It was 10:00pm on New Year's Eve; we had spent most of the evening at the night club, but all four of us were so hot from dancing, we decided to go out on deck.

'Whoa, it's freezing out here', said Anna, 'I'm going back in'.

'I think I'll go too' Jared shivered, 'what about you two?'

'No way, I'm boiling after being in that night club for seven million hours', I replied.

'What do you want to go in for? The stars out here look just so beautiful', said Laura as she stared out over the Atlantic Ocean.

'Fine, suit yourselves', Jared said as he walked away.

'Aaron', Laura said.

'Yeah', I replied.

'Well it's just, err..., will you go out with me?'

It was at that moment that I realised just how much I actually fancied her.

'Yes', I smiled, as I hugged and quickly kissed her.

She was right about the stars; they were blazing down like diamonds on the pitch black sea. The two of us just stood there, holding hands and staring out over the sea. What neither of us realised, was that this relationship was only going to last a few more hours, and so were our lives.

After we had been out on deck for some time, Laura asked, 'have you got the time?'

I looked at my phone and realised that it was already quarter to mid-night.

'We ought to find Jared and Anna, it's nearly mid-night', I replied.

'Yeah, let's go', she said.

We went inside and found Jared and Anna on a balcony overlooking the ballroom.

'Yeah, before you ask we're going out', I said.

'We'd sort of guessed that seeing as you two had spent almost two hours out on deck', Jared pointed out.

For the next few minutes, we just talked, until the people in the ballroom below began counting down to the New Year. As soon as they got down to zero, streamers and gold and black balloons were launched up in the air from somewhere down below, followed by a few cheers.

Laura then said, 'I can't believe it is 2006 alrea...'

Before she could finish her sentence, an alarm sounded, and a voice on an intercom sounded instructing people to abandon ship. Seconds later, the entire ship lurched to one side, accompanied by masses of screaming, and all four of us fell against the wall. I was about to get up, until I realised that the screaming had not stopped and that everyone and everything in the room which was not fixed to the floor was slowly either sliding or falling towards the ceiling. I cannot emphasise to you how scared I was at this moment; it was by far the scariest thing which had happened to me in my life.

When I was sure that the ship had stopped capsizing, I sat up. What I saw was probably one of the worst sights that I had ever seen in my entire life. I could see children screaming for their parents and parents searching for children, people trying to extinguish fires, people with horrific injuries, trying to get help, and dead bodies, half-buried underneath up-turned tables and chairs. I looked over to the windows, and remembered that we were underwater. I looked in a fragment of a mirror, and realised that I had a long, fairly deep cut across my face, which stung like hell, and was causing blood to run all down my t-shirt. Out of all of the disaster movies I had ever seen, no matter how graphic it was, none of them had portrayed the true horrors of the real aftermath of a disaster. I remembered watching Star Trek when I was younger and watching the Voyager ship crash dozens of times, making a disaster look like an adventure; it just did not compare to what I was seeing now.

I then decided to look for my friends. I found Laura, lying on the floor nearly drenched in her own blood, but still alive.

'Laura', I said.

'Aaron, is that you?', she replied in a weak voice.

'Yes it's me, do you know where Jared and Anna...', I stopped mid sentence as I saw them lying dead where they had both been crushed underneath part of the balcony which had collapsed on them.

'Are they ok?', Laura asked in the same weak voice.

I just stood there with my mouth wide open. Me and Jared had been friends since we were three years old, and to see him lying dead with his girlfriend Anna, who he had been going out with for four years now, was almost unbearable for me.

I crouched down and helped Laura up onto a sofa which had somehow landed the right way up. When she gathered what had happened to Jared and Anna, she put on the same shocked expression as I had. I sat down next to her, and put my arm around her.

'I have known Anna since I was four, I can't believe she's dead', she sobbed.

'Look', I said, 'I think that I'd better go and help a few of these people out, is it ok if I leave you here?'

'No, I'll come too', she said.

'Are you sure? You don't sound too good, and you look as if you've lost a lot of blood', I told her as I got up off the sofa.

'Actually, you're right', she replied.

For the next hour, I went around trying to help people, but I soon realised there was not much that I could do, so in the end I went back to Laura.

When I sat down next to her, she said, 'look at those people up there'.

I looked up and saw a group of six people, including a boy who could not have been older than twelve climbing out of the room, through a door.

'They're mad, they have no idea what could be up there, and anyway, wouldn't they be safer down here? Surely help must be on its way', I said as I saw them disappear through the door.

'I hope you're right', Laura said miserably.

We both sat there, talking for the next twenty minutes, until I heard a small cracking noise. I looked up to see the windows breaking under the pressure of the water, and water was gushing into the ballroom. All around me, I could hear screaming and people were running everywhere. Me and Laura just sat there petrified; we knew that there was nothing we could do. I held her close and closed my eyes as the water began to close in on us.

The force of the water was immense; it drowned out all of the screaming, ripped me and Laura apart and I could no longer tell where I was, or which way was up or down. Then I died.


End file.
